A property firm has launched into global estate and letting agency saying that consumers can choose how much commission to pay it.
The deal applies to both vendors and to landlords.
Strawberry Star has three offices in London – in Hanover Square, Wandsworth and Docklands – plus an office in Singapore and another in Hong Kong.
Its launch was accompanied by claims that most consumers have had a bad experience with an estate agent.
It put the proportion at 76% across the UK, rising to 88% in London.
Strawberry Star claimed in an “Estate Agent Evaluations report” that just over 7.5m people across the UK feel the number one frustration about estate agents is their overriding “interest in receiving commission over finding the right property for their client”.
Other claims included that over 4.4m consumers felt an estate agent had broken promises, and 8% of 25 to 34-year-olds had felt pressured by an agent into buying a property.
The data was drawn from a survey conducted last month by Opinium involving 2,003 UK adults.
Strawberry Star CEO Dorian Beresford claimed: “Consumers both at home and overseas continue to be dramatically under-served by their agents.
“The level of unsatisfied customers here in the UK is astonishing and representative of the frankly abysmal service delivered by many in the industry.
“We feel it is our obligation to redress the balance and put the power back into the hands of the public by literally putting our money where our mouth is.
“No tie-in periods, no false promises, and if the client is not delighted by our service they get to choose how much of our fee to pay.”
Strawberry Star, which opened in Singapore last week, says it plans an “enhanced regional presence in the UK” along with offices in India, China and the Middle East over the next five years.
We asked how it was possible for consumers to choose how much commission to pay.
The company told us: “Strawberry Star’s service offer places a huge amount of faith in the consumer, based on a belief that the UK public are honest and fair, and appreciate good, personalised service.
“Market analysis on initiatives that eliminate risk has previously reflected a small percentage of people will abuse the offering.
“The agent has a staunch business direction to place the power back into the hands of the consumer, believing that rightfully, they will regulate the service based on the honest fulfilment of promises made.”
The company added the explanation: “We agree a fee with the client for selling or letting the property, for example 2% for selling.
“When the fee becomes due for payment it is at the client’s sole discretion how much of the agreed fee to pay.
“No caveats or small print – if we live up to their service expectations they will pay our fee in full. If we let them down, they get to pay what they think is fair.
“This applies to the ongoing monthly management of properties also.”
The idea is not original – http://www.underhillproperty.com/index.php/unique-estate-agency/ – but we’d be interested in your thoughts.
And in the real world.
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Its not April 1st is it? What a lot of tosh for a cheap headline!
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I remember an agent doing this near us in 2005/2006 GENUINELY did this…… closed 8 of their 16 offices a year later… honestly!
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(vendor) Well… you sold it in the first week so how about £500?
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Oh dear, shall we all put a note in our diaries for 1 year from today and see how this merry little band got on? – Jonnie
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So as a business that has traditionally offered their properties as splits to other agents I believe it’s safe to say they might struggle to get agents to work with them in future! “Oh you know how we offered you 1% split fee ….well how does 0.1% sound?”
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“Strawberry Fair claimed in an “Estate Agent Evaluations report” that just over 7.5m people across the UK feel the number one frustration about estate agents is their overriding “interest in receiving commission over finding the right property for their client”.”
Erm – just a small point. Last time I looked, an Estate Agent’s “client” is THE SELLER – who expect their property to be SOLD.
Yup – just checked again – it hasn’t changed.
Note to Strawberry Star – the Agent earns their commission that way – and the better job they do – the more commission the client pays them.
They might want to look it up…
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Spot on PeeBee. My thoughts exactly.
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They are not the first to do this, many have done it before. Some more successfully than others. Most agree a fee, say 2% or 2.5% but have a min fee of say 1%. The client chooses how much in between the 2 fees to pay. If the agent excels (price achieved and service) then clients are mostly happy to pay the upper fee, if not they pay the lower fee. Not having a “safety net fee” seems a bit daft though.
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Beyond gimmicky, I can’t wait to see how this one turns out. I think some of my landlords will give them a try though, free agency, hurraaahhh
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“interest in receiving commission over finding the right property for their client”
Never had anything much to do with Buyers agents so I can’t comment on this one.
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Ummm, Strawberry Star are not a straight forward estate agent. They will be selling the stock their owners have bought. Strawberry Star have bought off plan huge numbers of new build property in Riverlight and The Hoola Building amongst many others, so they are hardly a standard estate agency and their claims on fees are somewhat laughable given they are selling their own book. Surprised no one has noticed.
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